The Librarian - Short Mock Trailer - Marx Brothers meet a Ghost!
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Ok, this was a spur of the moment let's enter a short film competition done on the prompting of my wife. This competition is held in Boston once a year and it involves making a mock trailer for a film that doesn't exist. The theater that runs it lays down the rules and the title, so you have to follow their road map but the trailer itself is your creation. Since their subject title was "The Librarian," and since my wife is a librarian, we decided to enter a trailer this year. My wife and I co-wrote it, and I ended up directing it in about 3 hours one evening. Our mock trailer shows a "lost" Marx Brothers film that features the brothers in the funeral business racket. Groucho and Harpo are trying to take Zeppo for a ride by claiming they can resurrect the spirit of his great grandmother. They go as far as to pull the old ectoplasm stunt but end up shocked when a spirit actually does appear. When our short played the festival, I became painfully aware of just how deep the generation gap is...although they laughed, I honestly believe these kids, (because that was what the audience was made up of, college level kids) didn't get it, I honestly believe they had no clue who the fuck the Marx Brothers were! LOL! Times have certainly changed...Please let us know what you think of this short.
Tags: Marx Brothers (Musical Artist) Short Film (Film Genre) Ghost Comedy (Film Genre) Groucho Marx (Author) Harpo Marx (Composer) Zeppo Marx (Film Actor) Tatyana Kot Spiritualism (Religion) Conjuring Seance Coffin spook show 1930s (Event) ectoplasm
Added: 9 months ago
From: 40deuce80
Views: 294
["A Face Like a Freshly Slapped Ass presents" appears on screen, then cut to black and white footage of a man dressed as Zeppo Marx (balding, glasses, short sleeved shirt, dark pants) standing in a funeral home, as he knocks on one of the coffins]
ZEPPO: Hey, hello! Uh, can I get some help around here?
[a woman dressed up as Harpo Marx enters the scene, as she smiles and honks her bicycle horn at him]
ZEPPO: Oh, hello. Hi. Uh, I'm a librarian. I'm doing some genealogical research on my family. Can I ask you a couple of questions, please?
["Harpo" just points at the coffin and honks her horn again]
ZEPPO: Uh, is that a yes or a no?
[she honks the horn a couple more times, and "Zeppo" throws up his hands in aggravation]
ZEPPO: Oh god, can I please talk to the funeral director?
[she honks the horn again, then "You'll quiver and quake ... You'll shiver and shake" appears on screen]
[cut to a man dressed as Groucho Marx talking to "Zeppo"]
GROUCHO: Welcome to O'Shea's, young man.
ZEPPO: Hi, I'm a librarian.
["Groucho" rolls his eyes]
ZEPPO: I'm doing some research on my deceased great-grandmother.
GROUCHO: [pause] So, you wanna buy a coffin, huh? Well, it just so happens I have this baby on sale. Actually, it's not a baby, it's a coffin.
ZEPPO: No, dammit! I'm a genealogical librarian looking for information on my deceased great-grandmother, who was also a librarian!
[cut to "Zeppo", "Harpo", and "Groucho" sitting around a table]
ZEPPO: Do you guys really believe that we can conjure up the spirit of my great-grandma? I mean, th-this isn't the way they taught us how to do genealogical research in library school!
GROUCHO: Well, this may not be kosher, but if worst comes to worst, maybe I can conjure a few bucks outta you!
["Harpo" honks her horn, then cut to "Harpo" vomiting up "ectoplasm" (which is actually just a white handkerchief being pulled out of her mouth with a string)]
GROUCHO: Bring that up again and we're loaded!
[cut to the handkerchief being pulled into the coffin with a string (as a slide whistle plays to denote the movement of the "spirit")]
[cut to a female hand reaching out from inside the coffin, slowly lifting up the lid]
[cut to a reaction shot of "Harpo", as she lets out one long honk with her horn]
[cut to a young female librarian (long hair, slinky black dress) standing in the coffin]
LIBRARIAN GHOST: Okay, which one of you is coming back to the coffin with me?
[cut to "Zeppo" with a shocked look on his face]
ZEPPO: Grandma?!
[cut to "Groucho" reacting to the spirit]
GROUCHO: If that's the grandmother, I'd like to see what the mother looks like!
["See the undead as she returns from the grave to claim a new groom!" appears on screen, then cut to the cigar of "Groucho" sticking out of the coffin (with the lid almost completely closed so you can't see him inside)]
GROUCHO: [from off camera] What a way to go!
["Groucho, Harpo, and Zeppo Marx in The Librarian" appears on screen]
Produced and written by Christina and Keith Crocker
Director of Photography: Jim Haggerty
Directed by Keith Croker and Keith Matturro
Starring:
Allen Kupfer as Groucho
Tatyana Kot as Harpo
Bernard St. James as Zeppo
Edited by Christina Crocker
Editorial Consultant - Steve Gocinski
Filmed at Matturro Studios
Music - "Evil Plan" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech dot com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons dot org slash licenses slash by slash 3.0
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